


Devil Fruit & The Deep Blue Sea

by crocodilepatronus



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 19:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4576527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocodilepatronus/pseuds/crocodilepatronus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sir Crocodile was sinking to the bottom of the ocean like a stone and he was contemplating his possible plans of action.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Devil Fruit & The Deep Blue Sea

Sir Crocodile was sinking to the bottom of the ocean like a stone and he was contemplating his possible plans of action.

Ultimately there wasn’t much he could do.

He’d run out of breath already and was beginning to choke on the seawater, filling up his lungs painfully as the muscles in his chest labored to try and breathe with no air.

It was a strange sensation. It had been a long time since he’d been careless enough to fall into the water. A combination of heaviness and weightlessness- on the one hand he felt nothing around him but the gentle flow of the water, on the other, he couldn’t pull himself up no matter how hard he struggled. His body was like lead and getting weaker by the second.

It seemed like terrible timing was all. He had just successfully escaped the most secure prison in the world, though whether he and his group would take the marine battleship and successfully navigate to Marineford still remained to be seen and probably never seen by Crocodile himself as he’d fallen into the water during the process of taking the ship by force. He doubted he’d been noticed and even if he had, he had no allies who could come save him anyway. Daz certainly would not be of much help with his own devil fruit abilities keeping him from swimming.

It was a waste. He’d been vaguely looking forward to seeing hell break loose at Marineford.

Crocodile could still see sunlight breaking the surface of the water.  Could even hear the drowned out sounds of the battle happening above him and every so often debris would fall into the water.

And then a splash erupted through the surface. Bubbles flew down, obscuring everything for a few moments but then…. Well, it took a lot to shock Crocodile. But Luffy had never failed to do so anyway.

The boy, his mouths puffed up with air he was trying to hold in was attempting to… swim? Swim.

His eyes moved around quickly in the water, searching- until they landed on Crocodile. And then he dove towards him.   
Was he… coming to save him?

Moving his arms in huge pinwheel motions directly toward Crocodile. It was completely fruitless and Crocodile even in his weakened state couldn’t help but feel irritated. Luffy was sinking quickly but continued to make vain efforts to paddle wildly through the water even as his body was falling lower and lower.

 _Are you so stupid that you forgot you can’t swim_..?

The rubber boy did manage to make some progress moving laterally in the water until he was closer to Crocodile and with one wide swing of his arm had grabbed onto Crocodile’s hook and was trying uselessly to pull him up, even as he sunk lower himself.

Crocodile weakly, heavily, attempted to shake him off. He thought vaguely that he might actually prefer drowning to accepting Strawhat’s pathetic, futile, ‘help’.

Luffy seemed to hold on even tighter despite his silent protests and to his horror as he sunk lower he fell closer to Crocodile and actually wrapped his lanky arms around his torso. His legs however still attempted to kick through the water wildly- with no effect other than accidentally kicking Crocodile several times.

This Crocodile really couldn’t take quietly. Even if he was so oxygen deprived he was on the verge of fainting. The very least one could hope for would be to die with a shred of dignity.

He smashed the back of his hook against Luffy’s face but in the water it didn’t really have the desired impact. And Luffy certainly didn’t let go.

It was no use. He was going to die, bottom of the ocean, with a rubber imbecile wrapped around his waist like an accessory. It was hard to think of a worse way to go. But there wasn’t much to be done. It was already hard to even keep his eyes open.

He made eye contact with Luffy. The boy was losing air too- and fast, with all his floundering around in the water. His eyes darted around but his face was beginning to go red and his erratic movements were beginning to be more from a desperation for air than an attempt to swim.

 _Your dream ends here. Serves you right_. _All that trouble you caused me just to die a fool’s death_. Crocodile thought faintly. Ironic that he’d spend so much effort trying to kill Strawhat only to have him die in a stupid attempt to rescue him. Maybe there was some poetic justice in it.

But just as he was beginning to close his eyes a ripple hit his body at the force of another body falling into the water.

A strong hand had grabbed Luffy- was pulling him up by the back of his shirt. With Luffy’s arms still wrapped stubbornly around Crocodile, he was pulled up as well.

It was nearly peaceful- being pulled up through the water without having to move at all. _This kid always gets lucky, doesn’t he_ …?

They broke through the water but Crocodile’s hold on his consciousness was still feeble. His ches hurt, heavy and waterlogged. He could barely breathe. And with most of his body still submerged in the water he was weak.

It seemed however, even as a devil fruit user this problem didn’t seem to effect Luffy as much as he was very clearly and annoyingly awake and seemingly full of energy.

“Hey! Oiiii! Croco! Are you dead?!” Luffy’s voice was deafeningly loud and with every shout, directly in Crocodile’s ear, he sprayed seawater from his mouth onto the side of his face as he hacked and coughed inbetween shouts.

“Shut up…” the words came out of Crocodile garbled and faint and along with a mouthful of sea water that dribbled out of the side of his mouth undignified.

“Hey! Hey HEY! Wani! WAAAA-NIII!” Luffy slapped the side of his face, albeit gently, several times and pulled hard at his cheeks.

“Shut…. up…”

“Don’t die here! You really helped me out! Hey, alligator guy!”

“SHUT… UP!!” Crocodile seemed to regain full control of his faculties all at once- his eyes snapped open and he slapped Luffy’s hands away from his face. “What exactly were you hoping to accomplish with that stunt, strawhat?!”

Luffy ignored his irritation and grinned. “Ah he’s awake.” he said cheerily.

To his annoyance Luffy still had one arm wrapped protectively around his waist and around both of them, keeping them floating half submerged in the water, were the strong arms of Jinbei.

“Well you’re as foolish as ever. Your time at sea has taught you nothing.” Crocodile growled at Luffy.

Luffy just frowned at him, a crease of annoyance forming on his forehad. “Hey- I’m not the one who fell in the water.” he argued.

This simple comment sent Crocodile flying into a nearly apoplectic rage.

“You JUMPED in! That’s WORSE!” he barked back.

“Don’t yell in my ear or I’ll drop you back into the ocean.” Jinbei warned Crocodile calmly.

“Hey, Jinbei, c’mon! I want to get back to the battle!” Luffy whined childishly, ignoring Crocodile and tugging at the fishman’s sleeve.

“Listen to me when I’m talking, strawhat!” Crocodile shouted but Luffy had already stretched his arm up to the side of the boat. He gave Crocodile a last look, pulling his tongue down so it stretched to the middle of his chest then let it snap back up to his mouth with a rubbery sound. He yelled “MEAN!” then let his arm propel him upward, out of Jinbei’s arms. Crocodile from the water, still held up by Jinbei, watched him hop aboard the ship easily, running back into the fray of the battle and cackling with unbridled joy.

This left Crocodile still stranded in the ocean with nothing but the support of Jinbei’s grip. The silence was awkward. Crocodile found himself infuriated by Jinbei’s casualness in the situation or at least, that was where he directed his otherwise free floating anger.

“If you’re expecting a thank you” he spat venomously, “you’ll be waiting a long time.”

“I don’t need any thanks from you. I was only trying to save Luffy.” Jinbei answered back without malice. He began swimming, Crocodile still held up loosely in his arms, toward the boat to reach the rope ladder on the side. 

“I lost my coat…” Crocodile muttered irritably.

“Should I send you back for it?” Jinbei asked calmly, letting his grip slip on Crocodile slightly so he fell about a foot back into the water.

Immediately Crocodile wrapped his arms around Jinbei’s neck for dear life on instinct. “Don’t you dare!”

His face burned with embarassment as Jinbei gave him a look, one eyebrow raised. “Then stay quiet.”

Crocodile grit his teeth but bore it, staying silent (though pouting) until they reached the rope ladder where he gladly jumped from Jinbei’s arms.

Halfway up he turned to glare at Jinbei in what he hoped was a threatening look despite the fact that he was soaked through and his hair was falling into his face. “Just don’t go thinking I owe you anything for this.”

Jinbei looked up at him with curiosity, blinked, and then chuckled which annoyed Crocodile immensely.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Jinbei said.


End file.
